Written by Maria Gordeeva
ASTANA (Reuters) – An Embraer passenger plane en route from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 67 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities said, adding that 12 people survived.
An unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames when it hit the ground and then thick black smoke billowing from it.
The Central Asian country's Ministry of Emergencies said in a statement that fire services extinguished the fire and survivors were receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.
Azerbaijan Airlines said that the Embraer 190 plane, flight number J2-8243, was on its way from Baku to Grozny, the Russian capital of Chechnya, but was forced to make an emergency landing about three kilometers from the city of Kazakhstan. Aktau.
Russian news agencies said that the plane changed course due to fog in Grozny.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what happened, including a technical problem.
